The scumbags behind those fake bank web sites and annoying “your bank is upgrading its security, please come and give us your pin number” emails have long thought they were untouchable. Now this is no longer true, with Microsoft filing 129 lawsuits as part of its antiphishing initiative in Europe and the Middle East. 

Phishing is when someone pretends to be a financial institution, usually through email, to entice people to visit a fake, but official looking web site, where the victim enters their account details. The phisher can then use these details to steal money from the victim’s real account.

One Turkish phisher has been sentenced to a two-and-a-half year prison sentence, while four teenage phishers have dealt with through out-of-court settlements of $1,290 to $2,570. 

During the course of the antiphishing initiative 253 cases were investigated, and 50 complaints were filed in Turkey, 28 in Germany and 11 in Franks. Cases were also filed in Britain, Dubai, Italy, Morocco, and the Netherlands.

It’s great that Microsoft is driving this initiative. While most experienced computer users won’t fall for a phishing attack, there are some computer users who do get sucked in by the ever slicker and realistic-looking fake emails and web sites.

My general advice is that you should ignore all emails claiming to be from banks and other financial institutions. None of the banks I use ever contact me using email, and my understanding is that banks generally do not contact customers using email. I also suggest that when you visit your online account, always enter the URL into the browser yourself; don’t click to it from an link in an email or web site.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 10:34 am under Internet, Microsoft, Technology.

Read more entries by John Pospisil.
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